90 Gallon S.A. Discus/Pleco Tank Journal

[Darbex]

+1 the Rhizome will begin to rot if you bury it. Always keep it above ground they will eventually grow roots that will dig through the ground.

[jeebus]

Will be hard to see 20ppm with that spray bar effectively gassing out your water...you will have to be pouring that co2 in fast....Im talking like 200bpm or more possibly. At that rate your bottle wont last very long at all...

Why dont you just twist the spray bar around to face back to shoot down and back toward the glass?

The flow from the 2262 is too strong and will kick up sand and make a mess. I want to eventually move the intake strainer and heater behind the stump on the right side, the Y the return so that the flow is split in two and put a co2 reactor on one of the returns.

In the meantime I'm just going to have to deal with it as it is.

Also get a bunch more plants or your going to have algae out compete the few plants you have with all that co2 and light youve added.

To be honest I like how it looks now. The area those fish are from is very void of plant life. I see you are up for a challange here...:)

Plants are coming. It looks too clean and clinical right now. I guess I need to break this down so I can get some good advice.

1. I want to plant something that will grow out and look like turf or a grassy lawn in that area between the rocks and log. Suggestions?

2. I like the anubias idea for the log. I might do that.

3. I want plant something bushy in the area between the log and the stump. I want it to be at least the height of the log if not a little taller, but not as tall as the stump. Suggestions?

4. I think I'm going to plant some more vals around and through the stump again.

I want the tank to slope down from the top of the stump to the base of the rockbed. I want the plants to help achieve that perspective. I just don't know which plants to plant.

[Matt in Houston]

Consider an ozelot sword plant in the rear left corner. Very undemanding and it would look awesome with those color of discus. In addition it will grow tall enough to hide your heater and intake tubing.

In my planted angel tank, the ozelot sword is my favorite. It has been throwing off shoots for a few months now, and I have taken all the baby plants to HAW for Dustin to sell so he should have some.

[newb]

The area those fish are from is very void of plant life.

actually those fish are hybrids, as are most discus, and have never seen the wild!!! but we all know what ya mean!)

[jeebus]

Consider an ozelot sword plant in the rear left corner. Very undemanding and it would look awesome with those color of discus. In addition it will grow tall enough to hide your heater and intake tubing.

See my post above your post I'm quoting here.

In my planted angel tank, the ozelot sword is my favorite. It has been throwing off shoots for a few months now, and I have taken all the baby plants to HAW for Dustin to sell so he should have some.

I'll ask Dustin next time I'm at HAW to take a look at them.

[Mzungu]

Googling the ozelot sword, I found a few references that mentioned that it grows to an average of 18" tall.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/myplants/62-Echinodorus_ozelot_Echinodorus_ozelot.html

(See comment from davemonkey, who's also here on HFB. :) )

I think swords would be a great choice for this tank.

How tall is the stump?

[jeebus]

I want to plant something that will grow out and look like turf or a grassy lawn in that area between the rocks and log.

Suggestions on which LFS to go to this week to find what I'm looking for? Is Fish Gallery most likely going to be my only option?

Are there any HFB members I should pm to see about private sales of what I'm looking for?

[Matt in Houston]

The other sword I have and like is a Red Rubin....They have thinner and longer leaves, and vary from green to yellowish, to red in color. I will try to take a few pics today so you can see how they look when almost fully grown. They also grow taller, and very fast, faster than any other sword I have seen. One I have now is about 22" tall and I planted it about 4 months ago when it was only a 5" plant.

As for your grass....I dont know what would work best for you at discus temps. I know I tried to help Mhx grow some grass in his angel tank...it became a huge mess and a lot of trouble for him so he pulled it out. I think he has tried dwarf hairgrass and micro sword, maybe he will chime in with his experience.

Best of luck!

[jeebus]

I lowered the temp down to 86. I don't know what my ppm is on the co2 but everything is vibrant green and suddenly growing up AND out. Its moving at about 2bps on the bubble counter.

My new 4x54watt T5 fixture came today. I also picked up some plants at Fish Gallery. I'm doing a water change now then will add the plants and re-arrange my plumbing.

I'll definitely be posing some pics tonight.

[jeebus]

I forgot to mention in my last post that Fish gallery really helped me out yesterday.

This is after 24 hours.. Still need to change out the actinic bulbs:


Dwarf Hairgrass:


Compact Sword:

[thomas]

Beautiful tank. I really like it.

[Darbex]

Make sure you root feed those plants because without soil they may lack the nutrients needed since sand is void of nutrients that they need for the most part

[wesleydnunder]

Lookin good.

Mark

[jeebus]

Thanks for reminding me! I had done the root tabs when I first planted but had forgotten this time around.

How often should I reapply? (once I put in fresh ones this weekend)?

[mgarrido]

Looks nice Glen, agree with D about the root tabs. Do something with the heater, maybe replace it with an ETH-300 inline heater. Did you replace the actinic bulbs of the new t5's?